The present invention relates to a joining assembly for fixing a tube at a holder, in particular for fixing a brake fluid tube at a holder fixedly mounted to a vehicle.
Such brake fluid tube connectors are mounted for example at the vehicle body adjacent to a brake cylinder for a front wheel of a vehicle and are adapted in particular to provide tensional stress relief of the flexible brake fluid tube which extends to the brake cylinder and performs respective movements as a result of steering movements of the front wheel. In the prior art there has become known such a joining assembly which comprises a steel sleeve and a steel bracket or clamp which fix the brake fluid tube at a plate shaped holder of the vehicle body. For mounting the joining assembly to the vehicle body a portion of the brake fluid tube is inserted into the bore of the steel sleeve and thereafter is deformed in a folding area such that internal annular cutting edges of the sleeve penetrate into the outer surface of the brake fluid tube so as to be interlocked therewith. Due to such “crimping” operation, the brake fluid tube is held stationary both circumferentially and axially. For mounting this assembly to the holder the assembly is inserted into a hole of the plate-shaped holder and secured to the holder by the steel bracket.
This joining assembly of the prior art suffers from the drawbacks that the steel sleeve is a complex and expensive part requiring turning and milling operations, that the surface protection of the involved members may be damaged by the “crimping” operation so as to cause corrosion problems, that the assembling operation which requires insertion of the brake fluid tube into the steel sleeve and a following “crimping” operation is relatively complex and expensive, and that the steel members are of relatively high weight.